Mr. Bennett, I read your article "Written Off: Declaration of cursive's death reminiscent of '70's metric-conversion mania" and found myself perplexed by your connection you made between cursive and metric.
Regardless of your or my feelings about the value of cursive writing and its being taught in the schools, the comparison between that and the adoption of the SI metric system and its being taught in the public schools is difficult to comprehend. You have apparently not kept up with the advance of metric use in the US, and the reasons behind it. Not only is metric conversion not a "mania", but also its "death" is greatly exaggerated (as Mark Twain said of his own death notice). Laws made by Congress (with the Constitutional authority to do so) specifies that the SI metric system is the preferred system for us in trade and commerce in the US. The government has unfortunately not pushed the acceptance of metric as the law specifies that they should, but the current status of metric in the US is still officially "preferred". Much of US production is done in metric and many products are sold in metric sizes. Many more US products are made according to metric standards or packaged in metric sizes for sale in other countries, many of which will not accept importation of non-metric products. One significant example is the automobile industry which is totally metric except for the rim size for tires and the numbers presented on the dashboard display. Metric is used in many areas of US business and commerce. Unfortunately, one notable example where metric is not used is for things that are seen by the general public (like highway speeds). Consequently (and unfortunately) this leads to the false assumption that metric has died out and adoption of metric is no longer an issue. It is true that Americans have generally not taken to the metric system, although there are many of us who have. However, metric has been gradually adopted in many situations. There is no doubt that the economy of the US could be improved by total adoption of metric, both because it is easier and more efficient to use and because it would put us in line with the rest of the world which is 96% metric. It is just unfortunate that we are adopting metric so gradually because that is the slowest and most difficult, least efficient and most costly way to do it. Say what you will to the contrary, but cursive is on its way out while metric is on its way in. Your implied criticism of metric is not helping, but it won't stop metric progress. Bill Hooper height 1810 mm body mass 71 kg Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA ========================== SImplification Begins With SI. ==========================
